The present invention is related to mine support cribs. More specifically, the present invention is related to mine support cribs having only two or only three planes.
Over the last several years, increased attention has been given to more efficient systems of standing support for underground mines. U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,547 teaches a support formed by a plurality of parallel, notched chocks which are assembled to create a singular structure. While unique, this structure has the drawback of being material intensive. In many cases, the device provides more support than is necessary for the task and as such is not cost effective.
Work in the early 1990""s by the U.S. Bureau of Mines on wooden crib supports included attempts at stacking timber in an xe2x80x9c+xe2x80x9d pattern to try to minimize the timber used in building a support. Other attempts provided shallow notches on one surface to improve the xe2x80x9c+xe2x80x9d pattern stacking. All attempts at such a configuration have met with limited success due to the instability of the non-interlocked structure. These attempts also used square cross-section material (such as 6xe2x80x3xc3x976xe2x80x3xc3x9730 chocks) which utilized as much material as conventional 4 point crib.
Also, the system as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,547 is conceived as a singular stand alone support which is not always desirable particularly when large structures are required to be built. The individual chocks to construct large structures with this device become very impractical for manual construction. A structure such as a quay wall of Iori Kikuchi has been considered but the complexity of stacking the multitude of different components is impractical and does not stabily interlock all components.
The present invention pertains to a mine roof support crib. The crib comprises a plurality of chocks that are connected together through notches in the chocks to form only three planes with at least two of the planes in perpendicular relation with each other and able to support at least five tons of load.
The present invention pertains to a mine roof support crib. The crib comprises a plurality of chocks that are connected together through notches in the chocks to form only two planes which are in perpendicular relation with each other and are able to support at least five tons of load.
The present invention pertains to a mine roof support crib. The crib comprises a plurality of chocks that are connected together through notches in the chocks to be able to support at least five tons of load. The plurality of chocks comprise a first type of chock having only one notch on a first side and a second type of chock having at least one notch on a second side. The plurality of chocks are connected together.
The present invention pertains to a method of forming a mine roof support crib. The method comprises the steps of placing a first chock having only one notch on a first side in a mine. Then there is the step of linking a second chock having at least one notch on a second side with the one notch of the first chock. Next there is the step of linking a third chock having only one notch on a third side with one notch on a fourth side of the second chock opposing the second side. Then there is the step of linking a desired number of additional chocks onto each other or the first, second or third chocks through notches of the respective chocks until at least two planes are formed.